Oscar Wilde Quotes About Writing

• I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Clever, Hipster

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.153, Wordsworth Editions

• I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Travel

  Oscar Wilde (2005). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.50, Prestwick House Inc

• If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (1950). “Essays”, Ayer Company Pub

• I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Work, Book

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.3, Courier Corporation

• The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Anger, Reading

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 19 (1891)

• If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Writing, Thinking

• The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Media, Differences

• She lives the poetry she cannot write.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing

• All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

  Oscar Wilde

  Spring, Book, Reading

  Oscar Wilde (2005). “The Prose of Oscar Wilde”, p.186, Cosimo, Inc.

• He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Writing, Poetry

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.64, Diversion Books

• Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Mistake, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891). A similar quotation occurs inWilde's play LadyWindermere's Fan, act 3 (1892).

• With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?

  Oscar Wilde

  Happiness, Flower, Book

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.128, Oxford University Press, USA

• A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

• A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Life, Witty

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Reviews”, p.121, Oscar Wilde

• Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Writing, Reading Literature

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

• In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Writing

  "The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

• An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1001, Wordsworth Editions

• Books are never finished, They are merely abandoned.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Writing, Abandoned

• I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

  Oscar Wilde

  Morning, Writing, Perfection

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.225, Wordsworth Editions

• In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (2008). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.570, Oxford University Press

• Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Greatness, Men

  Intentions "The Critic as Artist" pt. 1 (1891)

• I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories”, p.45, Penguin

• When I think of all the harm [the Bible] has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Thinking, Despair

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.112, Wordsworth Editions

• There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

• I don’t write this letter to put bitterness into your heart, but to pluck it out of mine. For my own sake I must forgive you.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Heart, Forgiving

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.94, Oxford University Press on Demand

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